FreeSkool was created in response to un-met needs in this city. We need forms of learning that nurture community, that are egalitarian, and that, more than being merely tolerant, are radically inclusive and thrive on diversity of perspective and identity.
We have used many tools to meet our goals. FreeSkool is committed to anti-oppression. We are decentralized, running on a model of consensus decision-making. We seek to be self-sustaining and to build strong bonds with other community organizations. We put our learning to work and give back to the greater community. We are inspired by anarchist philosophy and peace education in creating egalitarian learning, and we see this model as a form of resistance against this stifling culture of mediocrity. In most people’s lives, education means levels of achievement in an indifferent system — it divides people, privileging some over others — it breeds unthinking respect for authority, which is the enemy of real learning — it forces conformity to prepare people for their assumed place in society. We want to create a meaningful alternative to the mainstream education system by creating collaborative and empowering learning spaces – to learn new things while having fun!
More than being merely tolerant, Freeskool aims to actively make our spaces diverse and safe for the expression of all identities. We believe this is essential to the learning process. Exposing and challenging unjust race, class, gender, age, ability, sexual orientation, experience, and other dynamics helps us to work towards a culture that values a wider range of truths. Radical inclusivity is a major challenge. There are social and structural barriers to many people’s involvement in education that must be overcome for the liberation and learning of us all.
An anti-oppression analysis is a powerful tool that helps to include diverse populations and educate around issues of exclusion and privilege. It is a work always in progress. We must embrace discomfort and challenge our assumptions. It is the responsibility of each participant to self-facilitate our power, privileges, and oppressions.
Each class runs autonomously, meaning they create their own structures, learning models and facilitation processes. The organizing committee is at the service of each class, responding to space and material needs, but not dictating form or content. The organizing committee aims to unite classes through promotions, information and events that allow us to share what we’re learning about learning. This serves to create a model for decentralized and egalitarian education that can then be replicated by others.
We think that people are at their best and most creative when they aren’t trying to compete with eachother or defer to a high leader, but when they work together and have their input valued equally. For these reasons, FreeSkool values consensus and strives to incorporate the input and feelings of all parties affected by decisions when we make them. Unlike in other “democratic” systems of decision-making, consensus works against having winners, losers, presidents or minions. Consensus strives instead to equalize power amongst members and to come up with decisions that all parties are satisfied with. We use consensus because it produces stronger, more creative and more unified groups and movements. By agreeing that we will not move forward with a decision if any one member finds it objectionable, we honour differing viewpoints and are forced to find more imaginative ways of addressing issues. By refusing to compete amongst ourselves, we prevent needless factionalizing and enable more voices to be heard. By sharing responsibilities and roles, we empower each one of us to have the skills necessary to keep the project going.
Freeskool is not dependant on power embedded in certain individuals or positions. It is a model of education we are all developing together that can shift through time depending upon the needs of the group. Because we are not dependant on money, but on the time and energy of our community, we are not as susceptible to the fickle whims of capitalism.
The organization is structured so as to share responsibility and distribute work over time, ensuring that all interested people have a chance to build their skills, and that no one is overburdened or burnt out.
This culture uses competition, prejudice, hierarchy and exclusion to divide us. Freeskool builds community by challenging authoritarian structures that prevent us from connecting as equals; in traditional learning models, rewards are used to keep both students and teachers in line. Freeskool creates self-motivated and mutually rewarding learning environments, which allow us to build healthy communities based on respect and cooperation. Freeskool is building bonds with community organizations like the Jamesville Community Centre, the Skydragon Centre, and OPIRG, working together to create a culture of healing and resistance. Classes are putting their learning to work in ways that directly contribute to the health and resilience of the wider community. We hope that the work of freeskool is visible across the city in myriad ways.
Freeskool seeks to create non-hierarchical learning spaces, where each participant has equal say in the form and content of their education. Participants take responsibility for their own learning and for the learning environment they are co-creating. The facilitator does not dictate what happens in the class, nor are they an expert to whom everyone defers. We share knowledge, skills and experience freely among us. Freeskool recognizes that this culture teaches us from an early age to submit to constructed authorities, rather than to value our own desires, intuitions, and experiences as the basis for understanding our world.
Freeskool is inspired by peace education, which is committed to working to understand each other, and our shared circumstances, but also to develop skills and abilities to confront obstacles to peace. This includes envisioning alternatives and devising and implementing strategies for their realization. Peace education emphasizes learning for transformation that is different from simple change: transformation is a deeper change that affects ways of thinking, world views, values, behaviours, relationships and social structures. Peace education embraces the UN Manifesto 2000 principles; “respect all life, reject violence, share with others, listen to understand, preserve the planet, and rediscover solidarity”.
The status quo is unacceptable. It has failed to meet our material, emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs, and is making the world uninhabitable. We are not trying to redeem this culture, but to offer an alternative informed by a different set of values. Freeskool is an act of resistance. By demonstrating other ways of living and learning, empowering participants, and giving back to the community in tangible ways, Freeskool challenges the place of conventional learning institutions as the only path to knowledge. It is an experiment in liberation fuelled by love. We hope for it to be a stepping stone to a stronger community of resistance.